Stormy Weather: Navigating Profitability in the NFP Hospital Space with Kevin Holloran

Hospitals had a rough 2022 as they faced higher labor and supply costs, volatile patient volumes, and fragile payer relations. More than half of hospitals in 2022 are expected to result in negative margins, according to Kaufman Hall. Kevin Holloran, Senior Director at Fitch Ratings, said 2022 was “one of the worst years ever in healthcare,” and he projected hospitals would face a bumpy 2023.

On this episode of Healthcare Rethink, Jonathan Wiik, VP of Health Insights at FinThrive and Kevin Holloran dig deeper into financial performance for health systems and hospitals.

Topics covered:

  • Headwinds affecting the not-for-profit hospital sector and what is driving those headwinds
  • Advice for CFOs and recommendation to insulate operations and profitability
  • Thoughts on M&A activity
  • How the future of payer/provider collaboration may look
  • Issues affecting profitability from labor to patient volumes and possible impact from recent legislation

Recent Episodes

Healthcare leadership is being redefined in real time. With the rise of AI, mounting financial pressures, and workforce burnout, executives today are operating in an environment of continuous disruption and uncertainty. In fact, industry leaders now rank workforce shortages and digital transformation among their top concerns—forcing a new kind of leadership that blends decisiveness…

Healthcare systems are facing a workforce crisis that’s no longer temporary—it’s structural. Even before COVID-19, staffing shortages across nursing, technical, and administrative roles were already straining capacity; today, those gaps are wider, costlier, and directly impacting patient access. With labor shortages persisting and burnout rising, health systems are being forced to rethink not just…

Healthcare systems are entering 2026 under mounting pressure. A growing, aging population and rising disease burden are colliding with persistent workforce shortages—highlighted by projections that new cancer diagnoses in the U.S. will surpass two million this year alone. The stakes are no longer theoretical: delays in care, limited specialist access, and widening disparities are…